In this week’s blog, Mark looks at some of the key areas involved with converting leads and prospects into students. He has also included some useful advice and tips to help you make sure you are getting the most out of your leads and prospects, along with how to find out if or where you might be going wrong and how to fix it.
Right let’s begin
Let’s start by covering some of the key areas you need to be aware of. You may already have these areas covered which is great! You’re already off to a promising start. If you don’t, don’t panic, the points below can help give you an idea of what to do next and what you should consider thinking about.
Have you worked out your business plan and know how many students you need to recruit per month in order to maintain or grow your business?- Have you got a good idea of your success rates of enquiries to new members?
- Have you formulated a marketing plan that will help outline what you need to do to generate the leads that you need to convert to new members?
Don’t waste a lead
Sometimes leads seem to appear with no effort and it’s very tempting to treat them in a casual manner, but stop! This lead came from somewhere, possibly an earlier campaign that you thought was unsuccessful. It is important to try and make the most of this by obtaining a name, mobile number and email address and maximise your opportunity. Obtaining their details gives you ample ways to contact them about promotions, classes, potentially joining and the ability to follow up on any classes that are missed. Communicating effectively can help increase the chance that the lead will sign up or at least, come along to a trial lesson.
Add your lead to your prospect database (you have got one of these haven’t you?). You will then be able to measure the effectiveness of your marketing activity, and you will be able to work out your lead to intro and intro to sign up rates. Using myMA to record leads and conversions is a great way to help track this information and see how you are performing.
Lead to Intro
This part of the journey all starts with someone contacting you for the first time. Your target should be to get that person to visit your club, either for a free taster session, a beginner’s lesson or even just a chat.
Of course, if your website and Facebook pages have a “book now” facility, then your potential client has already gone through the sign-up process for one of your classes and selected the date themselves. If you haven’t got this facility then you need to contact the lead to arrange your intro session or lesson. Don’t forget to offer a choice of days and times! “Can you make Monday?” only offers a choice of yes or no answer, “Would Monday or Wednesday suit you best?” offers the client the opportunity to choose and commit themselves.
You can also direct people to your page on Get Into Martial Arts and make use of the online booking system. For any lessons not booked through Get Into Martial Arts, be sure to follow up that booking with a reminder saying ‘thank you for the booking…’, stating the date and time of the booking either by email, text or phone call. This will help with the booking to turn up rate as you will be keeping it fresh in their mind and give them confidence that the booking was received.
It is so important to get the lead to come and visit you, how else are you going to describe the fantastic atmosphere that exists at your club, the top class training facilities, the professionalism of the coaches, the helpfulness of the black belts, the easy car parking…etc.
Now and again a lead will fail to show up to their intro session, call them and find out why! They may have forgotten or something may have come up. They may be too embarrassed to call you, but by calling them you are giving an opportunity to rebook their appointment.
Intro to sign up
This is the measurement of those that turn up for a trial offer, who then subsequently sign up or join your club, classes or academy. Make sure you give a great lesson! Make them sweat, make them smile, make them feel good about themselves, and make them beg to come back and do it again. Make sure you have membership packs ready to give out and don’t forget to give them a tour of your facilities.
Be transparent on price and let them know what they are getting for their money:
“Our joining fee is only £££, but this includes your licence, your insurance, your uniform and your first months training.”
“Our monthly fee is then £££, this entitles you to train up to X times a week which based on a 4 week month, is only ££ per class/session.”
“Your trainer is Mr/Mrs/Master XXXXXwho has XX years’ experience, has won these competitions and produced these champions.”
Any extras such as grading fees etc. should be communicated clearly and honestly. Agree a day and time of next lesson; perhaps arrange to meet 15 minutes early for private 1-to-1 training tips. If they are undecided on joining, give it a few days and contact them by phone or email to find out why. It will give you an insight as to what you can do to improve your approach. You can also make great use of the follow-up communications within myMA to help remind you and simplify the process.
Contact us now if you’d like help creating a business plan, utilising a school’s software programme, growing your business or formulating a marketing plan at enquiries@nestmanagement.co.uk. Alternatively, visit www.nestmanagement.co.uk/more and fill out the form for a FREE business review.
